


Sharkbait

by UsagiSquared



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Gen, Magic, can be interpretted as shippy or friendshippy, mermaid tfs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-15 00:34:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14148048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UsagiSquared/pseuds/UsagiSquared
Summary: In which a kindly old woman misunderstands Yuuma’s worries over Shark, and everything flows downhill from there.Canon setting, set just after Gilag's ruin.





	Sharkbait

Perhaps this wasn’t the greatest place to look for advice. Actually, Yuuma hadn’t entirely been looking to begin with–he’d merely wandered quite innocently through the streets in the wake of the recently finished duel against Gilag, and for some reason he couldn’t quite identify found himself turning to face a building that had been set up between two stores. 

 

The place was seedy and dark, an air of must clinging to his nostrils the instant he stepped inside. Idly, he could hear Astral murmur something about a darkness throughout the place, but despite all that had happened, he paid it no mind.

 

It was just a store after all.  
 

"Are you lost, dear?” The woman who ran the store seemed rather kind, in his opinion. She was aged, and the way her hair was pulled back into a messy bun along with the glasses she wore on beaded strings, made him think of his grandmother. Knitted shawls and sweaters helped with this. In fact–not that Yuuma thought too hard on it–compared to the dusty shelves around them, she seemed rather out of place. “I do apologize for the lights,” she stated, as if to read the mind of the one she could not see. “The bulbs need replacing, but I’ve yet to go to the store… It’s rather difficult to see what I have here, but I would be glad to help in any way I can.”  
 

Yuuma beamed. “Ah-! It’s fine!” he laughed, scratching his head. “Ehheh… Actually, I’m not sure why I came in here..”  
 

“Ohhh?”  
 

Only people who ‘needed’ something came in there (supposedly). The old woman insisted on it, even gong through the aisles in some attempt to find what it was he apparently needed. As they walked, they talked–the woman more than he, not that he minded.  
 

What eventually came out however, apparently helped in making the decision.  
 

“You are worried,” she observed, pausing at one aisle and moving behind the cash register to find something. “About someone very close to you…”  
 

The first one to come to mind for that was Astral, of course–to that end, he looked to the spirit, who merely stared back and then turned to look to the woman. As a second thought however, his other friends came to mind, and without thinking he spoke. “Shark…”

  
She turned, blinking a moment. “Shark?” she questioned, as though not entirely sure she’d heard correctly.

  
Yuuma jumped somewhat, but nodded. “Er–y-yea! He’s a friend of mine… But he’s gotten a little distant again,” the boy admitted, frowning. 

Probably something about his sister, or some other important thing. He didn’t know–he would  _probably_ show up when they were ready to visit the next ruin of course, but even so, the distance was becoming somewhat unnerving.  
 

He wondered if, perhaps, it was something he did…  
 

As it were, he had become so quiet and unaware, that the next thing he knew, there was a bottle in his hands, the elderly woman folding his fingers over it.   
 

“Eh?”

  
“Free of charge dear,” she chuckled, clapping one of his cheeks as he blinked. “You follow the instructions on that bottle, and you’ll be able to get much closer to your friend.”  
 

“R-Really?!”

  
“Of course!” The woman led him toward the door, smiling. “Now, you best be off… It’ll be getting dark soon, you don’t want to be late for your family right?” Ah–  
 

He flinched, his sister’s scolding coming to mind. “R-Right!” As he headed for the door, already jogging in place, he looked back. “Thanks, old lady!”

  
“You take care dear!”

  
“ _…Yuuma_.”

  
“Eheeee… That was lucky!~”

  
“ _Yuuma, I do not think this is as 'lucky’ as you assume._ ”

  
“I didn’t think potions and things were real at all but eheeeee~”  
 

“ _…_ ” Astral chose not to argue with what could not be reasoned with.

* * *

  
 

He did not drink it until he was home.  
 

It was a small bottle. The glass was almost entirely opaque, a sold green shade with a tag of directions tied about the rim beneath a cork.

“ _I do not recommend this,_ ” Astral announced rather flatly, watching his partner struggle over the cork. His fingers were dong little to deal with it and as he moved to resort to biting, the spirit continued. “ _You have yet to even read the paper it has come with–assuming this 'potion’ will indeed work as you intend, how are you to know you’re using it correctly?_ ”

A loud pop came through the air, Yuuma jumping somewhat as the cork fell to the floor. “She said to just drink it didn’t she?” he snorted, looking back to the spirit beside him.

Astral did not answer, merely staring back with a typical, 'you’re not listening’ sort of expression.

“See? I’m right!”

“ _That is not what she said._ ”

He ignored him, looking away. “The worst thing that could happen is it doesn’t work! Nothing will  go wrong!”

“ _I doubt this,_ ” Astral countered, only for his eyes to widen as Yuuma made the motion to chug the small bottle. “ _Yuuma– Oi!! Yuuma!_!”

“Kgh–Kack–!”

“ _Y-Yuuma, hey–!_ ”

The boy turned, tongue stuck out. “Bluh… It tasted like ocean water…”

“ _Hahh…_ ” Perhaps, Astral decided, he truly was being too cautious. “ _It likely was ocean water,_ ” he remarked, crossing his arms. It was probably an unintentional scam; free of charge meant nothing lost nothing gained he supposed though, so the spirit was content with watching Yuuma handle the aftertaste.

“Bleeeeh… I’m getting something to wash the taste out!” A good idea, admittedly.

However it seemed that no matter what he did, the taste was always there, faint and lingering at the back of his tongue. 

On day one, there was no change. Shark wasn’t at school, or at least not  _much_ , and when he asked with a grin f he wanted a duel he was turned down. ’ _We have more important things to be working on_!’ he said, and then moved to drive off somewhere with his sister.

Day two, and Astral asked why they had yet to travel to the next ruin, Shark’s own words the day prior coming to mind. Yuuma almost said they could leave right there–

However when he caught his sister eyeing him from across the table, he hurriedly went back to his food, and admitted to Astral that they would probably have better luck making off once the weekend came. Idly, he noted that his teeth felt a bit different…

“Sff-!”

Running his tongue along them hurt however, and he quickly gave up investigating them further lest he cut himself. Teeth were teeth, weren’t they? If they still worked fine, then there was nothing wrong.

Day three was thursday, which meant only one more day before they could head out, according to Yuuma’s 'scheduling’ plans (if it could even be called that). He’d looked around for Shark near the start of the day to tell him as much–he probably wanted to come after all, didn’t he? At this point he was pretty sure Astral was right about the potion though he thought, resting on his arms in class. The bottle was probably salt-water. Nothing special. One could have asked him what happened to his wonderful 'kattobing spirit’ if he’d said that aloud, but to be honest, he just felt tired for some reason…

“Yuuma… Neh, Yuuma,” Kotori whispered, nudging him. “Yuuma, class is over…”

There was no response, and as Astral as well came out to stare worriedly, as the boy’s friend nudged him harder.

“Y-Yuuma,” she started, shaking his shoulder only to receive no answer. “Yuuma–!” Quite abruptly, the girl stood. “Sensei-! Yuuma needs to see the nurse!”

 

* * *

 

  
“Phwueeeeeeeeh…” There was a soaked towel on his forehead, and as he sighed loudly there was a large bottle of cool water in his hands, already half emptied of the contents. “I feel like I almost died…”

“M _ouuuu_  Yuuma,” Kotori scolded, her arms crossed. “If you’re thirsty go get something to drink!”

He laughed uneasily, rubbing the back of his head. “Ehehehe… W-Well, I’m normally not that thirsty…”

Astral frowned. “ _According to your nurse, you were and still are suffering from 'dehydration’. Whether you are ordinarily thirsty or not, that does not appear to matter for the moment._ ”

The boy ducked down, pulling a face as the laughter petered out. “I- I got it…”

  
“ _Drink more, Yuuma._ ”

“I said I got it! Sheesh,” he grumbled, gripping the bottle between his teeth as he took a gulp.

“ _Additionally, you should be more careful._ ”

“Eh?” he asked, pulling the bottle back.

Kotori gasped from the side, and as Astral spoke, Yuuma looked to the bottle as well. “ _Your teeth are rather sharp_ ,” he stated plainly, while watching as the boy ducked under a swatting hand.

“Yuuma!" his friend cried, examining the bottle for herself. Tiny dents littered the edge, a few even piercing through. "That was supposed to be reusable!”

“AAAAAAH, I didn’t think I was biting that hard–!”

Teeth and water, teeth and water… That was all it was, wasn't it?

Later that evening, Yuuma seemed convinced his fish was somehow overcooked. He ate it of course, and as far as Astral could see, even enjoyed it. There was no change, apparently. However something felt wrong…

“ _Yuuma–! YUUMA!_ ”

  
It was day four.

“ _YUUMA!_ ”

“Oi, Astral–! What’s gong on–!”

And despite the bottle of water in his hands, Yuuma collapsed to the ground in an exhausted heap, responding to nothing.

Shark, thankfully, was there.

Or rather, he happened to arrive mere moments after the boy had collapsed, rushing over once he spotted the panicking spirit above his friend’s body. “ _Dehydration!_ ” he responded quite automatically, Shark looking up with an incredulous glance. Astral merely repeated the new condition he'd learned about the day before, frantic. “ _He’s dehydrated!_ ”

Likely because of who he was dealing with, he apparently decided to take Astral’s words at face value if at least until the nurse told them otherwise “Tch–Damn moron,” Shark hissed, moving to pull the boy up. “Oi!” the teen snapped, “Get up, you need to get to the nu–” He froze, and as a confused and perhaps even terrified frown came over his face, Astral stared.

“ _What is it? What’s wrong?_ ”

“…Shagreen…”

There were cuts–very small, like what one could receive when working too hard with sandpaper, on Shark’s hand. Small and barely noticeable even, and as he looked back to Yuuma he cursed. Ask later he decided, moving to rush for the nurse’s room. Later, la–

“ _Shark_ ,” Astral started abruptly, eyes wide. Shagreen was shark’s skin-the word entered his mind and latched immediately with his existing banks of nonsense earth trivia, connecting dots between everything else through the week. Connecting shark skin, the overcooked fish, the teeth, the– “ _He needs salt water!_ ”

“S-Salt!?”

Perhaps it was the severity of Astral’s insistence.

Perhaps instead it was the fact that Yuuma’s skin did not quite feel like _skin_ , instead scraping if rubbed wrong, the texture dry and unbelievably warm.

Or perhaps even it was what he spotted in that moment as Yuuma’s head flopped uselessly to the side, his eyes closed over and his breathing quiet but laboured. Lines? No…

  
_Slits?_

Turning opposite the direction of the nurse’s room he ran, adjusting Yuuma’s weight on his back while his jaw tightened. This was insane, he thought as he tore through the school’s front doors, not even bothering to pull out the helmets as he threw himself and the boy onto his bike. Insane, utterly insane, but as he drove there was a tiny part of his mind that felt the need to laugh at how tame it could have been seen next to everything else that happened.

Salt water Astral had said, the spirit remaining otherwise silent as they drove. Occasionally he’d question their route, but as the teen hissed some sort of reply back the spirit would swiftly quiet, putting at least a sliver of faith in Shark’s knowledge of the roads. Yuuma was dehydrated, but needed salt water, but that alone should have had him ignore Astral to just pull him off to the nurse. With these slits however–these slits that he could  _hear_  'opening’ now, wind whistling through the small folds they created–it seemed that what Astral said would indeed be for the best.

  
Idiot. 

  
He was a goddamned  _idiot_ , he thought as the bike skid to a stop, sides moving for him to pull his passenger out. An absolutely reckless, moronic,  _stupid stupid stupid_ –

“HRAAA _AAAAAHH–!_ ”

A loud splash cut through the air as he threw his friend off the docks, and for a moment he wondered two things. One–he was too late. He’d tossed a corpse into the ocean and now there would be nothing save perhaps a lot of questions from authorities once they got involved.

  
Two–Astral was wrong. The spirit seemed to have no qualms in following Yuuma’s body into the ocean but he had not returned ether, and there could be any number of reasons for that.

With both of these things however, he could do nothing for the moment.

Nothing save wait, he though bitterly, and that in mind he took a seat on the lower edges of the pier and watched.

“… You’re kidding me.”

Astral was not wrong, and the spirit even sighed with relief from beside him while Shark gawked.

  
“…You’re fucking  _kidding_  me.”

Nor was he himself too late.

Shark stared as the dark fabric of Yuuma’s uniform pants slowly floated up to the top, drifting in the water current and made visible only by the contrast between them and the mildly paler waters around them. Pants. His fucking pants had come off, and–

  
“PHUEEEEH–” Choking met his ears as Yuuma’s face broke through the water, the boy coughing as he came to his senses. “Bluhhhh…”

Hn. He sighed despite himself, looking to the boy. “You’re lucky to be alive,” he growled, cloaking his worry with annoyance. “If Astral hadn’t said 'salt-water’–”

“Mn? Salt water?” Shark decided to give him a moment. Just a moment. “HEH–Why am in the ocean!?”

“Because I threw you there.”

“Wh– Oi, why would you do that?!” the boy protested, only to frown. “Mn.” The frown swiftly moved into panic, Yuuma looking to the water as what had likely almost been 'where are my pants!?’ became something more drastic. “H-Hey… Why can’t  feel my legs?!” Almost on cue, Astral moved to disappear into the water to 'check' on that, Shark himself nursing a growing headache.

This was becoming less and less believable even next to all this barian crap by the second, wasn’t it?

The tail had been visible from the moment Yuuma moved forward in protest, honestly. Long and whiplike, and hardly something he’d have expected from a shark–not that expecting a tail on Yuuma at  _all_  was a thing, but, well…

He rubbed his head. “You really are an idiot, aren’t you,” he hissed, watching as his friend slowly discovered the thresher shark-body and tail that had replaced his lower half. “How did this even happen in the first place?!”

“Ah– W-Well,  don’t know–!”

“ _I believe_ _I_ _may have an answer_ ,” Astral commented, floating out from the water.

 

“HEHH–! Don’t do that!”

“ _Do what._ ”

“A… Appear! You just appeared from nowhere!”

Aaaaauuugh…

“Anyway, I need to get home,” Yuuma grumbled, the lengthy end of his tail swishing above the water. “Plus, we’re supposed to go to the ruins tomorrow!” he continued, “So I can’t just s-”

Close as Yuuma was to the dock now, it was easy to swat him on the head.

“Ow _owowooww-_ -”

“Don’t be an idiot. How are you supposed to do anything from here?” Shark snapped, standing and pulling the pants from the water as he did so. He held them forward, the message all too clear as Yuuma stared back and swallowed “ _You don’t even have legs_! And that’s not even going into how you’d breathe!”

“Ah… Well…”

- _grrrrlrlm_ -

An unfortunately familiar sound broke the tension, with all eyes moving toward Yuuma’s stomach as the boy blinked and laughed.

“Eheheheee… N-Nehhh,” he started, rubbing the back of his head. “…You don’t happen to have any fish do you..?”

In a sense, while it had clearly been the wrong 'shark’ that came to the old woman’s mind when giving Yuuma the potion, it had still worked as Yuuma intended.

While perhaps not the expected result they were certainly going to be spending much more time together.


End file.
